Values and Markets: an Analysis of Organic Farming Initiatives in Andalusia

• Published in: Journal of agrarian change Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 87 - 103
• Main Authors: LUETCHFORD, PETER, PRATT, JEFF
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2011
• Subjects: Agricultural cooperatives; Agriculture; Andalusia; Certification; conventionalization; Environmental Movements; Farming; Food; Markets; Organic farming; organics; Radicalism; Spain; Studies; Values; Andalusia Spain; Spain
• ISSN: 1471-0358; 1471-0366
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2010.00291.x

This article sets out the overlapping political and cultural roots of an innovative farming co-operative in Andalusia, one composed of both ex-labourers and small farmers. One strand of values involves the realization of a food chain in which no capitalist enterprise can extract profit from their labours: this, together with various conceptions of personal and local autonomy, shapes much of their practice of organic farming. Nevertheless, their labour has to generate an acceptable livelihood through selling food in an environment dominated by large-scale commercial agriculture in both the ‘conventional' and ‘organic' sectors. The article explains how they achieve this by building ties with consumers around a variety of shared values. This focus on the particularities of a radical food movement sheds light on many larger issues, both the nature of markets and competition in the dominant economy, and the debates about organic certification and ‘conventionalization'.